


Black Sails Tales (Meta)

by Natasha



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27669074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasha/pseuds/Natasha
Summary: The essays I'm writing while re-watching the series.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 30





	1. Nassau as Utopia

The Greek word Utopia has two meanings, depending on how it’s written: _eutopeia_ , which means “good place”, and _outopeia_ , which means “no place”. Taken together, these two meanings could refer to Nassau: it is a good place that doesn’t exist, or doesn’t exist yet. Nassau is utopian only in terms of its potential: in reality it is just sand, as Max says, and has the odor of pitch and shit, as Teach says, but it’s also a place where one can (perhaps) live a free and authentic life. This utopian dimension of Nassau is suggested in the very first episode when Logan steps ashore and says to Silver, “It used to be English but now it’s ours.”  
  
For Thomas, the entire New World has this utopian potential: he says that it is “a gift” and “a sacred opportunity to right our wrongs”. As a social reformer, he hopes that a new and more just social order could be established there. Flint echoes this belief when he says to Eleanor that perhaps the New World could become something more than just an extension of the old one. The word “sacred” suggests that this also includes Thomas’s spiritual vision: his own version of Christianity, which is not dogmatic like Lambrick’s, but based primarily on the ideas of compassion and forgiveness.  
  
But no one else talks like this, as Hennessey says, and Thomas is considered mad because of his views. Everyone else views the New World simply in terms of financial gain. Alfred Hamilton wants his son to restore the rule of law in Nassau because it has stopped bringing him profit.  
  
James soon comes to share Thomas’s idealism and his utopian vision, but he also adds a personal dimension to it. When he says to Miranda that Nassau shows promise, he primarily has in mind the promise of freedom. One of the reasons why S2E5 begins with an explicit scene of love making between Jack, Anne and Max is because their situation is so sharply constrasted to the mortal danger that the other three characters face in London. James dreams about moving with Thomas and Miranda to Nassau where no one would raise an eyebrow at their threesome. Nassau is utopian in this regard as well, as a place where you may be free to love those you want to love without risking gallows or mental asylum.  
  
And all of the above are reasons why Woods Rogers’s plan for Nassau is not the same plan as one that was put forward by Thomas, James and Miranda. There is no utopian vision behind Rogers’s project and no attempt to right the wrongs of the old social order. It is only ostensibly similar to the original, but in fact, like the copy of Hanneman’s painting, a worthless abomination.


	2. Flint and Vane, Order and Anarchy

Flint and Vane are rivals because they are the two top pirate captains in Nassau. Vane also believes (wrongly) that Flint is his rival when it comes to Eleanor’s love. But more fundamentally, the reason they clash so often is because their life philosophies are so different.

In S3E4, Flint says to Silver that he has always believed in making order out of chaos. His idea about transforming Nassau is also a manifestation of this belief. In S1 he wants to use the Urca gold to turn Nassau into a republic of thieves. He makes plans on how to organize life in this republic by turning pirates into soldiers who would defend it and into farmers who would supply food. Even when he joins forces with the Maroons and declares war against England, he still maintains his belief in order. He refuses to believe, as Silver does, that the only thing which can replace the existing order is an unending horror of anarchy and bloodshed. He explains that the old order needs to be brought down so that a new one can emerge:

> _If we are to truly reach a moment where we might be finished with England, cleared away to make room for something else, there most certainly lies a dark moment between here and there. A moment of terror when everything appears to be without hope. I know this. But I cannot believe that that is all there is. I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that… Grown so used to the yoke that there can be no progress without it._

Flint always thinks in terms of structures, organizing and building. Vane, on the other hand, is a proto-anarchist whose most important value is personal freedom. He even believes that this is the best remedy for others – as when he says to Eleanor that what she really desires is to be liberated from all the father figures and just do as she pleases, and that he could grant her such freedom. Vane believes that all the structures trap you and hold you down, so that he perceives even a comfortable domestic space as a potential prison. 

He partly developed this philosophy under the influence of Blackbeard, who says that “a lion keeps no den”. When Flint first came to Nassau, he clashed with this old generation of pirates and their way of life. Unlike him, they were only interested in a life of plunder, adventure and unlimited freedom, and never considered building something new:

> _You know, when I called Nassau home, most of the men on this beach weren’t even men. I sailed with Ben Hornigold. I sailed with Sam Bellamy. I sailed with Henry Avery. Feuded with them, stole from them, questioned their motives, but we all knew what we were. Then a man arrives who would explain to us that what we’ve been doing was wrong all those years, what Nassau ought to be, what he could make it if we would all just follow his lead._

Vane eventually gives his life for his ideal of freedom, but he also dies for the freedom of Nassau. Perhaps this means that in the end he has changed and embraced some of Flint’s views. If I were to assign each of the characters to a certain period in literature, I would say that Flint belongs to Classicism and Vane to Romanticism. Historically, 1715 is still too early for Romanticism, but with his passionate defence of individuality and freedom Vane does seem to belong there. After all, his final words are an almost exact quote from a poem by the great Romantic poet P. B. Shelley:

> _Rise, like lions after slumber_
> 
> _In unvanquishable number_
> 
> _Shake your chains to earth like dew_
> 
> _Which in sleep had fallen on you:_
> 
> _Ye are many—they are few._


	3. On Love, Sinners and Suffering

When Lambrick asks Miranda to read his Easter sermon, we get to hear two statements from it. The first is that Christ’s love of sinners gave him the strength to endure his agony. The second is that love through suffering is the truest form of love. Miranda then quotes from the Song of Songs to remind Lambrick that there are other kinds of love represented in the Bible. She concludes by saying that true love shouldn’t require suffering.

This conversation strikes me as relevant to other characters and situations in _Black Sails_ as well, on several different levels. First, when I think about “love of sinners”, the character that immediately comes to mind is Thomas Hamilton. With his plan to grant universal pardon to the outlaws in Nassau and his argument that “if you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins”, Thomas emulates Christ’s love of sinners. 

At another level, though, this entire show is about sinners. All of the characters are sinners – or, as Jack says to Rogers, “we are all villains here in Nassau”. And what _Black Sails_ repeatedly does is compel you to love sinners and to recognize their humanity even when they do horrible things, such as Anne’s murder of Charlotte or Flint’s sacking of Charles Town. It may be true that everyone is a monster to someone, as Flint says, but _Black Sails_ does not allow us to perceive any of its characters as monsters. This holds true not only for the characters to whom we closely relate, such as Flint or Anne, but even for those we strongly dislike. Berringer, who hangs and tortures pirates and who threatened to kill Max, is shown fondling a locket with the images of his wife and daughter. Underhill the slave owner is shown tending to his ill wife. Even Richard Guthrie was once a kind boy who fed a hungry cat, although his father repeatedly punished him for it.

The second statement is also relevant for the whole show. Miranda is right to argue that love shouldn’t require suffering. There is no reason why Thomas Hamilton would have to suffer because of his “love of sinners” nor why Thomas and James would have to suffer because of their love for one another. Suffering does not make one’s love more sublime or more spiritual, as Lambrick believes. It is caused by social injustice. In one of his novels, Arthur Koestler says that revolutions are essentially fought in order to abolish senseless suffering. The only kind of suffering we have to accept is biologically given: we grow old, get ill, eventually die. All the other kinds of suffering are socially induced, and can be made to disappear if the social norms and conditions are changed. Flint and Madi, I believe, fight their war to put an end to senseless suffering of all the oppressed and disenfrenchised groups. 

John Silver also wants his love for Madi to be free from suffering, and in the final analysis this suffering is, again, caused by social injustice: because Madi wants to fight to liberate her people from slavery, and because Rogers as an agent of colonial oppression threatens to kill her. The trouble is that Silver does not see his (and Madi’s) suffering as caused by imperialism and by social and historical injustice. He only sees it as caused by war. He doesn’t share Flint’s and Madi’s vision of a better world, and is only able to perceive their war as an unending horror. This is why, for him, “love that doesn’t require suffering” is something that he believes can only be achieved at a personal and not at a collective level. He betrays Madi’s war to save Madi’s life. And “this is how they win”, as Flint tells him. Ultimately the powers that be win by threatening to destroy someone or something we love, and making us comply with societal status quo in order to avoid that suffering.


	4. Billy's Fall

Billy’s first fall is a fall from innocence to experience, and it happens when he kills the man who has held him imprisoned on a ship for three years. When Flint and his crew free Billy from bondage, they deliver him into a lawless world where he has to rely on his inner guidance and devise his own code of conduct, and he chooses to take revenge against the man who has wronged him. Now he knows that he is capable of murder. He cannot go back to his father and his family because he is no longer the innocent child that they knew. Still, he manages to recover from this, restore his sense of integrity and replace his old family with a new one. He accepts Gates as a new father figure and the Walrus crew as his brothers.

Billy’s second fall is when he lies about the missing page. He now discovers that he is capable of deceiving his brothers, and for him this is a more disturbing discovery than realizing that he is capable of killing. Gates convinces him that what he has done is really in the crew’s best interest, but Billy’s doubts continue to mount up, especially when Morley tells him about the Maria Aleyne. If Billy had known about Flint’s past, he would have understood that what Flint did was an act of revenge not very different from his own. It would have been easier for him to believe that this time Flint has a selfless goal and wants to obtain the Urca gold for the sake of the people of Nassau. But since Billy doesn’t understand Flint’s motivation, it is difficult for him to determine his own position. He continues to support Flint when he chooses unsafe ground for careening, or when he orders the Walrus to go faster while pursuing the Andromache, but all the while he is troubled by doubts. It is easy for De Groot to voice his concerns because De Groot is simply worried that Flint’s actions will damage the ship; Billy is worried about the damage to his own moral being.

The moment when Billy lies about the missing page is also the moment of his initiation into the role of leadership and the grey areas of politics, as he gets promoted soon afterwards and elected as the ship’s quartermaster. It is the position where he has to come to terms with situational ethics, and consider whether there are occasions when it is justifiable to manipulate the men he leads, mislead them or withhold information, as long as he believes that it is for their own good. Flint is quite versed in it, and so is Gates to some degree, but Billy isn’t. He may be a natural leader when it comes to organizing men for battle, as Gates says, but he doesn’t know how to cope with the moral weight of leadership – with the burden of wearing the crown, as Madi calls it. He doesn’t know how to suppress his doubts in critical moments and dance the dance. He needs guidance on how to be a leader – the kind of guidance that Silver receives both from Flint and from Madi towards the end of S3, but Billy never does. This is the symbolism of the scene where Billy is about to slip from the side of the Walrus and Flint extends his hand to guide him to safety. Then he loses his grip, either by accident, or because Flint is holding onto him only half-heartedly, because Billy is such a wild card – and Billy falls.


	5. Closed Gates

In S1E7, it’s strange that Flint doesn’t manage to explain himself to Gates. Flint is famed for his eloquence and his passionate speeches. He is skilled in reading other people and knows just what to say to each person to produce the intended effect. Sometimes a single sentence of his is enough to change someone’s mind, as when he asks Silver, “Where else would you wake up in the morning and matter?”, or when he tells Vane to forget all about the promises given to him or to Blackbeard and just ask himself who he is. As Scott says, Flint knows the power of a story and how to harness it to his own ends. He can create a narrative and wield it “to compel men’s hearts and minds”. In S1E2 Flint has no trouble at all to convince Eleanor in the viability of his plan. He tells her how he would use the Urca gold to secure the independence of Nassau. He tells her the story of Odysseus, finding peace in the mainland, and she is clearly inspired by it. Eleanor becomes such a staunch supporter and dedicated partner to Flint that she is ready to kidnap her grandfather’s captain if he refuses to part willingly with his guns for the sake of Flint’s mission. So, why does Flint fail to convince Gates? What happens to his great eloquence and why can’t he wield the power of the story in this particular moment?

In the conversation with Gates, Flint sounds like a megalomaniac and a raving madman. Without background knowledge, the words and phrases he uses would make anyone suspicious, and it’s no wonder that Gates is. Flint seems to argue that the pirates would be delivered “into something better” simply by accepting him as their ruler and sovereign. He says that “in the light of pure reason” no one would say “no” to his proposal, but he never states explicitly what his proposal is. He says that he is lying to the men for their own good, but he never explains how he conceives of that “good”. How come that Flint is suddenly so inarticulate and has suddenly become such a bad orator?

The only explanation that comes to mind is that he feels guilty. This conversation takes place in the aftermath of Billy’s fall from the Walrus, and my guess is that Flint feels uneasy about it, even though he does not show it. We never get a definite explanation about what happened that night, whether Billy’s hand slipped or Flint let him fall, and it seems that Flint himself isn’t certain, but either way it is quite possible that he is troubled by it. Furthermore, Flint knows how close Gates was to Billy. He knows that Gates suspects him and he feels Gates’ latent hostility throughout this conversation. But he never talks about it openly, because it would be incongruent with Flint’s fierce, ruthless, aloof persona to suddenly become emotional, go to pieces, admit his doubts and regret to Gates. Instead, he goes on wearing his mask and suppressing and hiding his feelings. But his guilt still bursts out, it makes him incoherent and subverts and undermines his efforts to make sense.


	6. James McGraw and His Shadow

Shadow is a term in Jungian psychology which refers to an unconscious complex, probably the one closest to the surface of consciousness and most easily accessible. It consists of all the character traits that we suppress from our conscious attitude either because we are ashamed of them or because our society considers them undesirable. The shadow may manifest in dreams as a dark figure of vague contours following the dreamer, whereas in fiction it often assumes the form of the character’s dark double. In real life the shadow may subvert the conscious self, as in the moments when we suddenly lose control and act in an unexpected and unrecognizable manner. The flashback scene in London when James McGraw savagely beats a group of naval officers who have provoked him and offended the Hamiltons is an example of his shadow bursting out. Hennessey explains this dynamic very well when he says to James:

> _My concern with you is over that which cannot be known. That thing which arises in you when passions are aroused… good sense escapes you. All men have it. But yours… yours is different. Darker. Wilder. I imagine it’s what makes you so effective as an officer. But when exposed to extremes, I could not imagine what it is capable of. And of greater concern, I’m not sure you do either._

A very good example of shadow representation in literature is Joseph Conrad’s short story “The Secret Sharer”. It deals with a young sea captain who is about to embark on his first voyage. Because he is anxious, he takes the the night anchor-watch by himself and at one moment during the watch, he sees a stranger climbing out of the water and onto the ship. The stranger’s name is Leggat and he explains that he is a fugitive from another ship where he has killed a man. Leggat posseses wild, untamable energy like nature itself. During a storm he performed a heroic feat on his ship and saved the lives of his entire crew; but later on he got in a fight because he couldn’t control his temper and killed a man with his bare hands. The captain recognizes Leggat as his own dark double, allowing the man to hide in his cabin and wear his clothes.

A version of this story appears in _Black Sails_ , where the stranger whom James’ grandfather meets in similar circumstances is called Flint; the sea from which the stranger emerges symbolizes the unconscious. Flint then becomes the name that James McGraw chooses for his shadow, the dark double he embraces when he arrives to Nassau and creates for himself the persona of a fierce and ruthless pirate captain. In S2E9 he says that he hates Flint and longs to return him to the sea. However, an important point of Conrad’s story is that the captain’s double returns to the sea only after the captain has fully integrated his shadow. First he needed to recognize all of his potentials, both positive and negative, in order to successfully command his ship.

How does one integrate the shadow? One possible solution is that the bright and dark self can work together if we dedicate ourselves completely to a worthy goal and are so invested in it that we direct all of our energies towards its achievement. As Flint explains to Silver when they talk about darkness in S3: 

> _If you and I are to lead these men together, you must learn to know its presence well so that you may use it… Rather than it use you._

In S4, I believe that we witness the integration of shadow in James (Flint) McGraw for this very reason, because he has invested his entire being in his struggle against imperialism and slavery. This process of integration has evidently caused him to grow and become a better person: he spares Underhill’s wife who was about to shoot him; he opposes Billy’s decision and refuses to endanger the slaves on New Providence Island; and when retreating from the Spanish attack, he makes sure that those who are wounded and unable to walk are carried to the beach and that no one is left behind. This is the version of James Flint McGraw that I love best, the revolutionary who has come to recognize and accept his shadow, and who knows how to use it as an asset in struggle rather than cast it back into the sea.


	7. I Remember Music

“I remember music.” These are the first words Abigail utters after reading Miranda’s letter which Eleanor has brought to her. Her most vivid memory of Miranda, the memory she has preserved from her childhood, is of music, most likely of Miranda herself playing. In the last episode of S2, after Miranda has been killed, the scene opens with Abigail in distress repeatedly playing one single key on the harpsichord. It is clear that she is thinking of Miranda, remembering Miranda through music.

Miranda is associated with music, not only in Abigail’s thoughts and memories but throughout the series. Her first appearance in the series at the end of ep 2 is as an unknown woman playing the harpsichord in the interior of the New Providence Island, ceasing to play when she hears Flint approaching and opening the door. Music is for Miranda a connection to her life in London, a symbol of refinement which she lacks on the island and also a symbol of joy. When Abigail mentions music in connection to Miranda she also mentions that Miranda was always warm and smiling and that she would make her mother laugh. When Miranda tries to convince Flint to accept pardon and move to Boston, she mentions music and joy together: “There is a life in Boston. There is joy there and music and peace.” Miranda as we know her from the London scenes is beaming with joy. Flint describes England as “gnarled and gray and spiteful of anyone who would find happiness under her rule”, but Miranda managed to find happiness even in such restrictive environment, extremely hostile to any expression of one’s individuality and personal freedom. She sought happiness secretly rather than trying to oppose the system openly or to overthrow it as Flint eventually does. She knew where to draw the line and how to avoid extereme risks (”Why take the risk? For the sake of the pirates of Nassau?”) In this regard she was somewhat similar to Julia in Orwell’s _1984_ , of whom the novel says:

> _Life as she saw it was quite simple. You wanted a good time; they wanted to stop you having it; you broke the rules as best you could... The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the same... She believed that it was somehow possible to construct a secret world in which you could live as you chose._

But when the two men she loves, Thomas and James, get involved in a political struggle, they break cover and the secret world can no longer exist.

After the loss of Thomas, lonely and isolated on the island, Miranda still struggles to appreciate life and find reasons to rejoice. We see her enjoying the sun as she works in her garden. We see her laughing as she teaches the local children to play the harpsichord, another scene in which joy is related to music. The last time Miranda’s harpischord appears in the series is in S3, when Vane keeps playing a single note on it just as Abigail did, upsetting Flint. Miranda’s house still exists in S4, but it has been turned into the headquarters of Billy’s resistance group, and there is no longer any music in it.


	8. We Like Him, Too

In Seasons 1 and 2, Silver often seems to be interested in pariahs and outcasts. In the very first episode, when Billy tells him about his duties as a cook and impresses upon him that in a pirate crew every man is equal, Silver points at the half-witted Randall and asks, “Even him?” In S2 he tells Flint a story (either real or made-up) about a disfigured boy in an orphanage who was likely to be a target for the other boys’ cruelty and malice, but managed to avoid it and make himself indispensable by becoming a gossiper. We don’t know anything about Silver’s past, but these motifs suggest that perhaps he, too, in spite of his charm and intelligence, found himself in some circumstances where he was considered inferior, treated as an outcast or was even victimized by the community. It may have reduced his own sense of worth and his hopes of ever being fully accepted and appreciated by others. This is why, in S2, when he needs to find his way of re-joining the Walrus crew, he says, “they don’t have to like me”, and settles instead for providing a function which he believes they need -- that of ridiculing others and so offering an outlet for the hidden animosities among the crew members.

And then something unexpected happens and Silver becomes accepted and loved. At some point he stops being perceived simply as an amusing story-teller and becomes fully embraced by the crew. Joseph Conrad often referred to his fellow sailors as “the children of the sea” and there is something child-like about the Walrus crew as well. In their naivety, they start believing in Silver’s sincerety, listen to what he has to say and become convinced that he has their best interest in mind.

But it is not just naivety. The collective entity of the Walrus crew is like an individual in the sense that it has both Lower and Higher Nature. They can be primitive, cruel and violent; they refuse to work unless there’s a fuck tent on the beach, cheer when Flint beats Singleton to a pulp and promote Dufresne when he chews out a man’s throat. But they are also capable of solidarity, loyalty and friendship -- like Morley, who sacrifices his rest period in order to get barnacles for Randall’s cat, and later sacrifices his life in an attempt to save Randall. The Walrus men greet Billy with genuine affection when he returns from the dead in S2, and they perform the sea burials of their fallen comrades with sorrow, solemnity and decency that also moves Abigail during her journey from Nassau to Charles Town. Even Nicholas, one of the two pirates who conspired with Silver to hide the truth about the Urca gold, feels deeply upset about betraying his brothers and it causes him to laugh inappropriately.

When Silver spreads gossip and encourages the pirates to dislike or fight one another, he appeals to their Lower Nature; when they embrace him as their comrade and brother, they act from their Higher Nature. And this, in turn, causes transformation in Silver himself and compels him to act in accordance with the positive image they have created of him. Flint is also aware that this is a two-way affair when he says to Silver: “It's a funny thing. The more those men need you, the more you need them. And it drives us to do the most unexpected things.”

The two most unexpected things Silver does for the Walrus crew is first, enduring torture in the hands of Vane’s quartermaster and then, giving up his share of the Urca gold in order to remain a crew member. In the torture scene, I believe his motives are still mixed: he doesn’t want to betray the men and cause their death, but he also believes that staying in the harbour and awaiting Vane’s and Flint’s return is his best chance of survival. But when Silver renounces the Urca gold, this is unambiguously an act of loyalty and recognition of his deep connection to the crew. It is also the motive which makes it possible for him to reconcile with Flint. Most likely Flint realized from the start that Silver lied to him and that he was to blame for selling the information about the Urca to another crew. And when Silver finally admits the truth, the most important question Flint has for him is what he did with his share:

> _“I gave up my claim to it.”_

> _“Why did you do that?”_

> _“Because I saw no way to hold it and remain a part of this crew.”_

Flint never wanted the gold for himself anyway; when Vane and Rackham convinced him it would be used to defend Nassau, the way he wanted to use it, he accepted this state of affairs. And when he realizes that for Silver, too, loyalty to the crew has become more important than gold, he forgives him, grabs the oars, and the relationship clicks into place.


	9. The Door is Open

Thomas Hamilton opens the door for James McGraw, helps him to understand himself and his potentials more completely, to become himself through love. He also infects James with his idealism and provides him with a sense of purpose and a cause worth fighting for.

In Nassau, James meets Mr. Gates, whose name has a symbolical meaning. He opens the gates to the world of piracy, another door that James goes through on his journey. He persuades Gates and his crew to follow him and so becomes a captain. This encounter also marks the birth of Flint, the name James provides when he introduces himself to Gates.

Tens year later, Miranda tries to open another door for James. She sends a letter in an attempt to obtain a pardon for him in Boston and show him that there is an alternative to his life of piracy and endless fighting: "The door is open. I've opened it for you. And it requires no war and no blood and no sacrifice." But James cannot go through that door; and the next one Miranda opens -- when she proposes taking Abigail to Charles Town and negotiating with Peter Ashe -- also fails to provide an alternative.

After her death, despair leads James to believe that there is only one door left, that leading to the other side, and all he wants is to surrender and follow Miranda through it. "You're curious again," she tells him. "Ready to follow me through the door that is somehow less frightening knowing I await you on the other side." This is the darkest part of his journey, when he is in the belly of the beast, like the mythical hero swallowed by a sea monster and taken to the depths of the underworld. In myths, this Night-Sea Journey is followed by rebirth, suggested by the imagery of sun rising from the ocean. Flint likewise experiences a kind of rebirth when Silver convinces him to stay alive and keep fighting, and this is again represented as passing through a door: "Thank you," he says to Silver, "for opening that door."

Finally, at the end of the story, we see Flint passing through the door of the prison plantation in Savannah; and then through another door, leading from darkness to light, and to his reunion with Thomas.


	10. Put Down the Newspapers and Read a Book

**Madi, reading** : Because her father brought books to the island and said, read them to know your enemy. Because she needs to understand the hypocrisy of those who write about divine love and mercy and compassion while they cause unimaginable suffering to her people and keep them in chains. Because she may have come across the works of abolitionists. Because her library also contains the writings of visionaries and social reformers who invite her to see life not as it is, but as it should be. Because books are the link to her absent father and she looks forward to their next meeting when he will ask her, “Madi, what have you read since the last time I was here?” and she will tell him and they will enjoy spending time together talking.

**James, reading** : Because he is the son of a carpenter’s mate who is eager to improve himself, and thirsty to know everything that has been denied to him through lack of formal schooling. Reading in Spanish because Miranda wanted him to learn the language and gave him Don Quixote to understand Thomas. Reading and discussing books with Thomas and listening to Thomas reading because of the sheer joy it brings to both of them to talk about literature and philosophy, to deepen their bond and get to know the wealth of each other’s soul. Reading poetry even in Nassau between two episodes of rough sea voyage and violence and plunder, because he still needs refinement in his life. Reading the philosophy of Enlightenment because he still hopes reason can be a bridge between himself and civilisation that has taken everything and called him a monster.

**Jack, reading** : Because he is the son of a tailor whose father was ruined by social injustice, and who was forced to choose between a lifetime of indenture and becoming an outlaw; and because there is a lot of ground to make up in order to catch the likes of Woodes Rogers, to whom world handed everything. Reading even in toilet, because life is too fucking short. “Put down the newspapers and read a book”, because you shouldn’t base your worldview on journalistic sensationalism and cheap propaganda, but read good literature to understand life more profoundly, and always be very particular about your library. Because perhaps reading will help you understand others, too, even those who never open up and whose soul is always a mystery and a closed book, such as Anne.


End file.
